HALF MAN, HALF PIE!!

In 1992, I was visiting a friend when he showed me this CD he had picked up while visiting San Diego on business. He had wandered into a club and saw this interesting band called Creedle on stage, playing maddeningly complex music with punkish energy. My friend had zero interest in punk rock, yet he was impressed enough to pick up this, their debut CD, at the concert. I was an instant convert. Being a fan of both prog and punk can be a lonely existence, but I seemed to have finally found a band that bridged the irreconcilable gap between these two musical modes I loved.

Much has happened in music since then, with progressive rock continuing to come in more and more aggressive, dissonant forms; yet this album still retains the ability to excite and raise an eyebrow. While not quite as tight and focused as their subsequent albums, its complex precision and fearless eclecticism still makes this an audacious debut.

Opening with the ominously quiet bass/drums/clanging guitar harmonics, the 7 minute opener "Super Moto-X" serves as a good encapsulation of this album, as it rares back two minutes in and delivers a punishing, dissonant riff around which the rest of the song is built. Vocals are shout/sung, yet still stress melody over cacophany (though vocals are admittedly not the band's strong suit). "Maiden" continues the album in a similar fashion, adding a few more odd-metered riffs and sudden stop/starts in differing tempos. "Pretty Girls" is the first of many short, abbreviated song segments that will continue to punctuate their albums. "Bark!" is a surprising turn into abstract group improvisation, a seemingly formless blob of restrained noise, and a bit of a waste of time.

"Really" puts the album back on track, a tough melodic mid-tempo rocker with a really strange riff in the chorus that seems to erupt out of nowhere - yet it qualifies as the song's "hook". Great melody/riffs everywhere in this song, and the song's coda catapults it to a new level, introducing a brand new musical theme that offers a cathartic conclusion. This song is followed by a bit of light punk/pop, a bit of nonsense called "The Haunted Pop-Tart", a wonderfully infectious piece of bubblegum punk that always gets me revved up. It even stops halfway through to go into a slow mock-reggae section, only to rev up again to full speed. Beautiful. "Llahmit" brings back the free form noise, this time at full throttle volume with squealing sax. OK. Exciting, at any rate, and not too long. "Family Sky" introduces a new kind of song that would continue to pepper their albums -- lo fi semi-acoustic, stripped down simple tunes. This kind of approach bears some affinity to the then-burgeoning alternative/indie rock scene. Nothing really progressive about it, but adds variety to the album.

AND THEN! Oh my God, "Mrs. Ip", one of the most incredible pieces of music the band ever produced. Beginning with a "Take Five" jazz guitar and piano introduction, it suddenly crashes into an extremely fast riff monster with time signatures designed to throw the listener overboard every sixteen bars or so, only to reel him back in to continue the roller coaster ride. The song appears to be about Mark Twain (with Mrs Ip being the Mississippi River) and the spelling of the word "Mississippi" forms the rhythmic basis of the piece. Don't even ask what time signature it's in. One of the most exhilaratingly complex punk tunes I've ever heard.

Unfortunately, the remainder of the album (and it's a long album) begins to drag after this. You get a couple more 6+ minute epics in "Trombino" and "Wild Kingdom", and a catchy rocker in the "Really" mode called "Pieboy", but very little that you haven't already heard by now. The album ends on a quizzical note, the lengthy "298-4869", which is mostly just a recorded telephone conversation.

An album littered with absolute classics ("Really" and "Mrs. Ip" in particular), but overall there's a bit too much here to stay consistently engaging. Also, for most prog fans, this album might lean a bit too heavy in the punk direction for your tastes. Future albums by Creedle would get more refined and incorporate more prog rock elements. I'll give it a strong three.